Five women owing allegiance to Akali Dal in fray at Badal village, none ready to withdraw papers

Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) chief Sukhbir Singh Badal is facing an uphill task at his native village Badal as five aspirants associated with the party have filed their nominations for the post of sarpanch and none of them is ready to withdraw their papers.

Sukhbir Struggles to build consensus

Sukhbir has held three meetings with all candidates, who owe allegiance to the Shiromani Akali Dal. He asked them to build consensus on one name but to no avail. Sukhdev Singh, sad leader

Everyone has right to contest

This is a fact that our family attended the meeting chaired by Sukhbir, but the elections are being held without party symbol and everyone has a right to contest. A close relative of a candidate

Though there’s no AAP-backed aspirant, there’s just one hopeful having allegiance to the Congress in the fray.

Last time, the Congress-backed candidate Jabarjang Singh Mukha was elected as sarpanch of Badal village, who defeated Udayveer Singh Dhillon, a close relative of former Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal.

Talking to The Tribune, Mukha said, “The post of sarpanch has been reserved for a SC woman and Rozy is our candidate. The Congress has thrown weight behind her. Five more aspirants having allegiance to SAD are in fray. They all have held meetings with Sukhbir, who has failed to build consensus on one name. Let’s see what happens on October 7, which is the last date for withdrawal of nominations.”

The six aspirants who have filed their nominations include Rozy, Rajinderpal Kaur, Beant Kaur, Kamla Devi, Kulwinder Kaur and Kali Kaur.

SAD leader Sukhdev Singh, former sarpanch of Badal village, said, “Sukhbir has held three meetings with all candidates, who owe allegiance to the SAD. He asked them to build consensus on one name but to no avail.”

A close relative of one candidate said, “This is a fact that our family attended the meeting chaired by Sukhbir, but the elections are being held without party symbol and everyone has a right to contest. The SAD leadership wants to have a consensus on one name so that the candidate associated with the Congress doesn’t get edge out of it.”

A family member of Cabinet Minister Gurmeet Singh Khudian, who is an MLA from Lambi, said, “The elections are not being held on party symbol, thus the issue of AAP-backed candidate doesn’t arise.